A quote from Pope Francis:
“Sport has always promoted universalism characterized by fraternity and friendship among peoples, accord and peace between nations; respect, tolerance, and harmony in diversity. Every sporting event, especially Olympic ones, in which representatives of nations with different histories, cultures, traditions, faiths and values compete, can become a channel for an ideal strength able to open up new paths, at times unexpected, in overcoming conflicts caused by the violation of human rights.
The Olympic motto ‘Citius, altius, fortius,’ is not an incitement to the supremacy of one nation over another, of one people over another people, nor of the exclusion of the weakest and least protected, but rather represents the challenge posed to all of us, not just athletes: that of making the effort and the sacrifice to reach the important goals in life, accepting one’s own limits without allowing oneself to be obstructed by them, but seeking instead to overcome them.”
— Address to Italian National Olympic Committee, Dec. 19, 2014
Editor’s note: We can send you a biweekly email alert with content from The Francis Chronicles. Follow the directions on our email alert signup page.
